OECD Development Co-operation Report: a scorecard of aid successes and failures - Thursday 14 February, OECD headquarters

06/02/2008 - Has development aid improved the lives of people living in developing countries over the past five years? Yes, says OECD's latest Development Co-operation Report, but slowly. Increased aid is helping very poor countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, fewer babies are dying and more children are going to school. But despite efforts by donor and recipient countries to use aid more effectively, progress is modest and problems such as inequality and climate change are growing.

Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary-General, with Richard Manning, outgoing DAC Chair; Eckhard Deutscher, DAC Chair; and Francois Bourguignon, Director of the Paris School of Economics will brief journalists and development stakeholders at 15:00 on Thursday 14 February at OECD headquarters.

The Report assesses the success of a dozen aid targets such as increasing overall aid volume and assistance to the poorest countries,  untying aid, and aligning it to meet recipient countries' needs without creating aid dependency. It also gives a short summary of DAC donor countries' aid efforts, noting that some will have to double their aid funding by 2010 to meet their aid commitments.

Journalists wishing to attend the briefing are asked to contact the OECD Media Division (tel: + 33 1 45 24  97 00). The Development Co-operation Report will be available on 14 February. To obtain a copy please e-mail news.contact@oecd.org.